Sir Edward Coley Burne Jones (1833–1898) was a master of drawing, painted glass and ceramic art. Initially fascinated by Botticelli, Mantegna and Michelangelo, he later turned to Gabriel Rossetti and the early Pre-Raphaelites. Little concerned with the details of daily reality, he probed medieval literature for new themes and produced works that idolize Victorian values and the Englishwoman. These ancient legends gave him a freedom of expression denied elsewhere in a victorian society.

This book is a striking tribute to Burne-Jones's favourite subjects: graceful girls, angels, gods, heroes and heroines. Generally melancholy-looking, thoughtful, or in repose, the subjects of Burne-Jones's early paintings bore much similarity to Rossetti who had persuaded him to give up theology in favour of art at Oxford. A lifelong friend of William Morris, Burne-Jones's output was prodigious by any standards - over 1,000 cartoons for stained glass alone, and over 200 oil paintings in his lifetime.